Gratefully built with ACNLPatternTool
Southeast Asian in origin and used before the twelfth century b.c., the sheng played an important role in Confucian music. Now it accompanies folk songs and is occasionally used in the Beijing opera to add harmony. The arrangement of its bamboo pipes symbolizes the folded wings of the mythical phoenix, whose cry the sheng’s sound is said to represent.
This image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
Use your arrow keys to navigate the tabs below, and your tab key to choose an item
Title: Sheng ( 笙 )
Date: ca. 1850–89
Geography: China
Culture: Chinese
Dimensions: 16 1/2 × 2 1/2 in. (41.9 × 6.4 cm)
Classification: Aerophone-Free Reed-mouth organ
Credit Line: The Crosby Brown Collection of Musical Instruments, 1889
Object Number: 89.4.2894
The Met's Libraries and Research Centers provide unparalleled resources for research and welcome an international community of students and scholars.
The Met Collection API is where all makers, creators, researchers, and dreamers can connect to the most up-to-date data and public domain images for The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.
We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.
